Shares of DocuSign Inc. fell more than 7% in extended trading today as an executive leadership shakeup overshadowed an impressive fourth-quarter earnings and revenue beat.

The biggest change is that DocuSign Chief Financial Officer Cynthia Gaylor is to step down from her role later this year, having only joined the company in September 2020. No reason was given for her departure, but DocuSign felt compelled to state that the decision was “not a result of any disagreement” regarding the company’s financial statements or disclosures. Gaylor will at least hang around until a replacement CFO has been found, DocuSign said.

“Cynthia has been an instrumental part of DocuSign’s story,” said DocuSign Chief Executive Allan Thygesen. “We have benefited from her unwavering commitment and leadership these last few years, and we are grateful for the strong foundation she leaves behind.”

In other changes, DocuSign announced that it has hired former Atlassian Corp. Plc executive Robert Chatwani as its new president and general manager of growth. Meanwhile, Anwer Akram is joining the company from Google LLC to become its new chief operating officer.

DocuSign is no stranger to executive shakeups. Last year, the company’s board of directors ousted its former CEO Dan Springer following a string of disappointing quarterly financial results. He was replaced by Thygesen in August. Furthermore, the company has announced two rounds of layoffs as it struggles to streamline its operations amid a tough economy. The first came in September, when it announced it was cutting more than 700 jobs, or about 9% of its staff, and that was followed by a second round last month, when it cut another 700 jobs.

As harsh as the job cuts may have been, they do appear to have helped put the company in a much healthier position financially, at least. In its fourth-quarter results announced today, DocuSign reported net income of $4.86 million, up from a loss of $30.45 million one year earlier.

Earnings before certain costs such as stock compensation came to 65 cents per share, while revenue rose 14%, to $659.6 million. The results were much better than expected, with Wall Street analysts modeling earnings of just 52 cents per share on sales of $640.8 million.

DocuSign said its subscription revenue accounted for $643.7 million, up 14%, while professional services and other revenue came to $15.9 million, down 5%. Fiscal 2023 revenue rose 19%, to $2.5 billion.

“We are reshaping DocuSign to invest in our innovation roadmap and self-service capabilities,” Thygesen said in a statement. “Looking ahead, we aim to drive profitable growth at scale by executing our mission of smarter, easier and trusted agreements.”

Analyst Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. said DocuSign did well to swing back to a profit and kick start its growth engines again. “It looks like the CEO change, with Thygesen coming in, was the key move,” Mueller stated. “Now DocuSign has to keep heading in this direction and try to deliver a profit for shareholders in the coming financial year. There is no reason why the company can’t deliver as it has attractive products that help enterprises become more productive and change the future of work, and that’s exactly the tonic they need when facing economic headwinds.”

For the first quarter, DocuSign is forecasting revenue of between $639 million and $643 million, and for fiscal 2024 it sees a range of $2.695 billion to $2.71 billion. Wall Street is looking for revenue of $639.8 million for the first quarter and $2.69 billion for the full year.

Photo: Shoptalk/YouTube